Five Loaves

Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered?

—Matthew 16:9 (NIV)

How soon we forget what the Lord has done!  When our minds are fleeting, we don’t remember. We become bogged down with what we consider priorities, and we allow fear of the unknown to clog our thoughts. Have we forgotten how he fed us when there was nothing? Have we forgotten His plenty when all appeared scarce?

To be filled we must be emptied of self. We can’t be filled if we aren’t starving for Him. If we aren’t hungry, our baskets will remain empty. “He has filled the hungry with good things,” Luke writes, “but has sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:53, NIV). Are we too rich in our own merit—our own goodness— that we just expect to be filled without emptying ourselves of our own resources?

We need to get this! This is truth for His child. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6, NIV)! We can’t fill ourselves with His honesty and virtue. Only He makes us righteous. We have been made “right” only by the gift of His life for our sin. If we empty “self” and seek Him, we shall find Him. We can stand on His Word. We can know without any doubt He has five loaves in that basket which appears so empty.

© 2018 Lynn Lacher

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